Fig. 2

Continuum of infection development in relation to developing technologies. Current clinical detection of infection is often late in the continuum of infection development (red line). Hard-coded rule-based automatic surveillance systems for early detection only diagnose infection when the clinical threshold of infection has been passed. Fuzzy based surveillance systems are able to identify patients in the preclinical infection zone (“gray zone”), while nowcasting and forecasting models make predictions when infection has not yet been clinically diagnosed. Hence, the time gain to take pre-emptive measures or start appropriate antimicrobial therapy in comparison with current clinical practice can be substantial. O patient state at given time, RBSS rule-based surveillance system, CP current clinical practice